History Main / CannonFodder

** As the MSF set up shop in UA, the HPSC will be forced to try and approach groups not loyal to the HPSC, such as the Meta Liberation Army, as sending tens of thousands of heroes to destroy the MSF [[TaughtFromExperience will go poorly.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': Both averted and subverted. The clones are often viewed as this even admitting it themselves, but to the Jedi (with the exception of Pong Krell), they are invaluable friends and kept alive as much as possible, not that it helps the Jedi in the end.

* Played with in the opening scene of the first episode of ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'', when King Richard III and his nephew talk about Edmund at the banquet on the eve of the Battle of Bosworth:

* In ''[[Series/Roots2016 Roots (2016)]]'', slaves who tried to join the British Army become this during the American Revolution. Armed with only spears against the comparatively well-armed Continental Army, slaves who fight with the British are essentially being sent to be the first ones to die in battle. Needless to say, Kunta and Carlton [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere decide to escape]] when things go [[CurbStompBattle as well as the viewer expects]].
* Invoked in ''Series/ScreamQueens2015'' during the second season. [[AlphaBitch Chanel]] wants to ensure her survival by recruiting girls into the [[GirlPosse Chanels]], whose jobs will mostly consist of being her minions and getting killed by the BigBad, so the main Chanels can live. This ends up ultimately working, as five of the six Chanels end up being targeted and killed by the Green Meanies, while Chanels 1, 3, 5 and 6 and 8 survive.

*** Chaos Space Marines have Cultists, dirt cheap troops of similar stats and equipment to Imperial Guard Conscripts, meant to be disposable bodies and "hiding spots" for the elite marines and special characters. The Alpha Legion is uniquely the only Chaos legion which actually bothers to train their cultists and rely on them for something other than catching bullets, [[PragmaticVillainy and one of the most successful ones, go figure]]. The Iron Warriors meanwhile were so noted for taking this approach to their attached Army regiments that pre-corruption Horus signed a specific order that Perturabo's troops could only be given control over [[BoxedCrook expendable penal regiments]] and enslaved forces from recently conquered worlds.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'': The Monarch regards his henchmen as basically disposable pawns and often sends platoons of them to be butchered by Brock Samson while he directs them from the safety of his flying cocoon headquarters.

** Some British commanders in WWI viewed the cost of armoring and healing soldiers as outweighing the cost of simply getting another soldier, right up until the point they realized just how few able bodies there actually were to throw in the war machine. See the Real Life section on LiesDamnedLiesAndStatistics for more details.

* ''[=Turnip28=]'' goes so far as to refer to its core unit that comes with large numbers of weak troops as "Fodder". Notably, it's one of only a few units that can take a direct hit from the Grand Bombard without being completely annihilated. Other units that tend to get killed frequently include Rootlings (which automatically respawn) and the Uprising of the Louse's Rabble (more of which turn up when the enemy blunders an order).

* During UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, Japanese infantrymen were called 'senrin' by their officers, referring to the price of mailing a conscription notice: one sen, one rin, or about 1/99th of a yen.

* ''Anime/YakitoriSoldiersOfMisfortune'' has the cannon fodder as point-of-view characters, and the trope is lampshaded by their human recruiter [[BrutalHonesty who makes no secret]] that the Trade Federation regard their human 'Yakitori' mercenaries as this. They're the tribute demanded from a VichyEarth and are legally regarded as 'equipment', which [[LoopholeAbuse actually gets them off the hook]] when the Trade Federation tries to use them as TheScapegoat in the Season One finale.

* ''Anime/YakitoriSoldiersOfMisfortune'' has the cannon fodder as point-of-view characters, and the trope is lampshaded by their human recruiter [[BrutalHonesty who makes no secret]] that the Trade Federation regard their human 'Yakitori' mercenaries as this. They're basically the tribute demanded from a VichyEarth.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': All the soldiers from the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom except [[EliteMooks the Dai Li]].

* Captain Zapp Brannigan from ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' makes no attempt to hide the fact that he sees everyone on his crew as completely expendable. His notable "victory" over the Killbots was achieved by feeding them wave after wave of his own men until they reached a pre-programmed kill limit and shut down. He has claimed that when he's in command, "Every mission is a suicide mission!", and he considers clogging the enemy's cannons with the wreckage of his own ships to be a viable combat tactic.
* Both averted and subverted in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars''. The clones are often viewed as this even admitting it themselves, but to the Jedi (with the exception of Pong Krell), they are invaluable friends and kept alive as much as possible, not that it helps the Jedi in the end.
* The Monarch from ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' regards his henchmen as basically disposable pawns and often sends platoons of them to be butchered by Brock Samson while he directs them from the safety of his flying cocoon headquarters.

In most wartime shows that focus on {{Ace Pilot}}s and other {{Military Maverick}}s, there will be a point when these are contrasted to "normal" foot soldiers who [[RedshirtArmy wear red shirts for standard issue uniform]]. They have weak weaponry, little to no armor, their only strength are their numbers, and their only available tactic is ZergRush. And, of course, they die [[EverybodysDeadDave en masse]]. It is the latter fact that almost certainly gonna cause [[InterserviceRivalry tension between them and said ace pilots and mavericks]] (who, at the very least, receive PlotArmor, if not better equipment and training), ranging from alienation to open enmity.

WeHaveReserves is a related trope but, as often as it happens to Cannon Fodder characters, it is different. WeHaveReserves is there to establish a military commander as a particular villain by having him give an inhumane order where it could have been avoided. Cannon Fodder has no other option but get killed and hope the reserves come in time. And yes, even the good guys employ Cannon Fodder in battle, as sad as it may be for them.

The term Cannon Fodder itself originated in the endless assaults of the UsefulNotes/WorldWarI Western Front, where there were no operational breakthroughs past the enemy's trench defenses and ''every'' battle consisted entirely of the hard-fought 'assault' phase (assault, breakthrough, exploitation). In this context of these huge battles in which trenches weren't taken faster than they could be dug[[note]] the real problem was with the artillery cover. Friendly artillery would blow the shit out of the defenses, which the infantry would then swarm and defend against enemy counter-attacks. But all artillery pieces have limited range, leaving the infantry vulnerable to bombardments from enemy artillery. To keep advancing you'd need to move the city block's worth of artillery forward... together with an actual mountain of ammunition and horse fodder and human-food... through the area you just blew the shit out of... faster than the enemy could use trains to just dump all their stuff where it was needed. In practice this was very, very tricky to pull off even if you had all the horses and supplies you needed and organised them perfectly. The Entente never really managed it, with all operations before 1918 having to stop advancing eventually due to unsustainable horse-deaths (from exhaustion) [[/note]], the infantrymen [[BlackComedy were said]] to be nothing more than fodder (a term usually used to describe horse feed) for the artillery. However, its French equivalent ''chair à canon'' (cannon meat) was used a hundred years earlier by Chateaubriand, this being a reference to artillery's fearsome killing power and pivotal role on the pre-rifle battlefields of the Napoleonic Wars. A similar term from times when artillery pieces were so expensive, rare, and heavy they were used almost exclusively for sieges and ships ("food for powder") dates back to the 16th century at least; it is used by Falstaff in Shakespeare's ''Theatre/HenryIVPart1''.

If a Cannon Fodder manages to outlive the others and get the jobs done over and over again, despite being expected to be killed in battles by their superiors, they may graduate into a SurprisinglyEliteCannonFodder.

NewMeat and RedshirtArmy are also similar but here, everyone in the unit is expected to die not for drama but just because of the unit's nature. Read more in the CanonicalListOfSubtleTropeDistinctions.

* ''[[Fanfic/StarWarsVsWarhammer40K Star Wars vs Warhammer 40K]]'': The Confederacy's Battle Droids are what you get when a bunch of merchants decide they want an army of {{Killer Robot}}s for as cheap as possible. Budget cuts in ArtificialIntelligence, armor plating and redundant systems have made the standard [=B1s=] far inferior to their Clone Trooper or Imperial Guard counterparts, never mind the elite troopers like Jedi or Space Marines. Their only virtues are [[ZergRush sheer numbers]] and [[WeHaveReserves the ease with which they can be replaced]].

* This is referenced by name in ''FanFic/OhGodNotAgain'' by the Sorting Hat. He was describing the Gryffindors.
* ''Fanfic/StarWarsVsWarhammer40K'': The Confederacy's Battle Droids are what you get when a bunch of merchants decide they want an army of {{Killer Robot}}s for as cheap as possible. Budget cuts in ArtificialIntelligence, armor plating and redundant systems have made the standard B-1s far inferior to their Clone Trooper or Imperial Guard counterparts, never mind the elite troopers like Jedi or Space Marines. Their only virtues are [[ZergRush sheer numbers]] and [[WeHaveReserves the ease with which they can be replaced]].

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant For the classic video game named]] ''Cannon Fodder'', [[VideoGame/CannonFodder see here]]. Not to be confused the the [[PunnyName punny trope]] CanonFodder.

** ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' subverts this: the less-equipped aliens are still cannon fodder, but they're strategically-placed cannon fodder. [[spoiler:The Etherial Faction, which rules over the other alien factions like a theocracy, is trying to find new forms of life, test and experiment on them, and determine their place in the hierarchy with the ultimate goal of finding a race that can surpass them - everyone in the hierarchy, Ethereals included, are considered failures by the Ethereals.]] You fight waves of Greys and Thin Men with ease in the beginning stages of the game [[spoiler:because the Ethereals are testing to see if your race can survive their weakest, most inept soldiers. If so, great; have some more technology and harder enemies to fight. If not, get ready to beg and grovel before your current foes as their new thralls.]]